Cool Hand Luke.

PEARCE, Donn.

Item Number: 136271

New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons, 1965.

First edition of this classic work, basis for the 1967 film starring Paul Newman. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “To Otto Preminger My first- Donn Pearce Sept. 10, 1965.” The recipient, Otto Preminger, directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as Laura (1944) and Fallen Angel (1945), while in the 1950s and 1960s, he directed high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with themes which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), rape (Anatomy of a Murder, 1959) and homosexuality (Advise & Consent, 1962). He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light shelfwear. Jacket design by Ivy Riekstins. An exceptional example, uncommon signed and inscribed.

Out of his experiences working on a chain gang, Donn Pearce created Cool Hand Luke, the larger-than-life war hero--Good Guy Number One--turned drunkard, vandal, and convict. A blasphemer and "pretty evil feller" who "could work the hardest, eat the mostest, and tell the biggest lies." Luke's outsized feats of gambling and gluttony--he bets Society Red, a college man from Boston, that he can eat fifty eggs--and his harrowing escapes and recaptures are recounted by Dragline, who followed Luke in his last, fatal escape attempt and who basks in Luke's reflected glory. To the convicts left behind on the chain gang, Luke has become the hope of freedom and defiance that they dare not act upon themselves. Luke's refusal to "git his mind right" and submit to the sadistic discipline of the Walking Boss becomes part of their mythology of survival. "An impressive novel . . . the most brutal and authentic account of a road gang that we have had" (New York Times). It was the basis for the 1967 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance.